Death in a Ghostly Hue * Susan Van Kirk * Art Center Mystery #3

When the former drunk driver responsible for the death of her parents is released from prison and turns up dead at the bottom of a staircase, an oil painter turned art center director must uncover a dangerous small-town killer to clear her hot-tempered brother’s name.

The Story: Written by prominent, Anthony Award-nominated mystery author Susan Van Kirk, this pacy and atmospheric third installment in the celebrated Art Center Mystery series turns a quiet Midwestern town into a high-stakes puzzle box. Shifting seamlessly between real-world murder investigations and supernatural interventions, the narrative looks past the predictable tracking lines of traditional village procedurals. Instead, Van Kirk establishes an emotionally dense, multi-layered framework that masterfully balances theme lines of revenge, retribution, and redemption.

The plot follows the intuitive Jill Madison, who operates as the executive director of the Marsden Center for the Arts in Apple Grove. Her family's comfortable sanctuary permanently fractures when Quinn Parsons returns to town after serving six years for the head-on collision that claimed Jill’s parents. Looking for forgiveness, Parsons instead encounters a highly volatile wall of anger from the community. When his lifeless body is found at the bottom of a staircase shortly after Jill's hot-tempered brother, Andy, publicly threatened him, a mean sheriff's deputy wastes no time throwing Andy into a cell.

Compounding her stress, Jill must simultaneously manage her art center's newly formed senior group, who are rehearsing a retro radio-play version of Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost". The timeline hits a strange, paranormal boundary when erratic occurrences and chilly drafts convince Jill that a genuine spirit - a historic figure named Daniel Lowry - is haunting the facility. To keep her brother safe, Jill and her bestie, Angie Emerson, launch a frantic counter-campaign, digging into the art center's dark architectural history and tracking down long-buried secrets before a calculating killer strikes again. Published as a standout cozy release by Level Best Books, this deeply moving, page-turning tale provides an exceptional finale for amateur detective shelves.

Perfect For: Devotees of traditional, fast-reading British and American cozy mysteries with a dash of paranormal elements or ghost lore like the works of Carolyn Hart, Amanda Flower, or Heather Blake; readers completing their narrative tracking loop through the Art Center series library; and fiction lovers who appreciate small-town art communities and strong family dynamics.

Anthony Award Nominee for Paranormal (2025)

Published 2024 by Level Best Books, stated First Edition.

Cozy Mysteries / Art Center Whodunits / Amateur Female Sleuths / Paranormal & Ghostly Cozies / Series Finales